SATURDAY CLOSING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 8

SATURDAY CLOSING

(To the Editor.)

- Sir,—ln reply to "Member of the Coachworkers' Union" I would remind him that the 40-hour week was not inaugurated to provide extra shopping facilities for any section of the community. Further, I' am certain that if the present, shop assistants were replaced by the obliging young men he knows of, they too would soon be agitating for Saturday off. The correspondent's statement that many shops are doing 33 1-3 to 50 per cent, more business on Saturday morning is not borne out by results in the firm I am working for—one of the largest of its kind in Wellington. Our Saturday trade has fallen by 45 per cent, without affecting the weekly total. Admitted, we shop assistants do render a public service, so do the carpenters, plumbers, painters, and electricians, etc., but not on Saturday.—l am, etc., SHOP ASSISTANT.' (To the Editor.) Sir,—lt has been interesting to read the letters in your columns regarding Saturday morning work and early closing on Fridays. Why was Friday specially chosen for late night? Was it because it was pay day for most places, or just because it was the end of the week? Now that many places make Thursday their pay day, and very soon all Government servants will be paid on Thursdays (fortnightly), I venture to say that late night on Thursday would meet with wide approval. Further, this would relieve banks of much of the present rush on Fridays owing to wage payments, etc., on jhat day. And the early closing of shops on that day would also mean less work for banks on Saturday.